Suhrid Barua has an unbridled passion for business and sports. He has worked/written for media houses like Thatscricket.com, The New Indian Express, MiD Day, Maharastra Herald (now Sakaal Times), Pune Mirror (Times of India's tabloid daily), CricketCountry, The Assam Tribune, The Telegraph and Sportskeeda. Watch out for this blog space for interviews, analysis, match coverage, stats figures and much more!

Monday, June 30, 2014

Belarus eves have won the second Women’s Hockey
World League Round 1 Tournament, which concluded in Siauliai, Lithuania. The 19th
ranked Belarus girls proved their supremacy in no uncertain terms, winning all
their three league games in a four-team event.

Belarus clobbered 34th ranked hosts Lithuania
7-2 in their third and final league game – they had earlier edged 24th
ranked Ukraine 3-2 and humbled 27th ranked Poland 4-1 in their first
two games. Yuliya Mikheichyk was the star of Belarus – slamming six goals to emerge
as the top goal-scorer of the tournament including a fine hat-trick against
Poland.

Ukraine finished second in the standings, pipping Lithuania
2-1 and putting it across Poland 1-0. Lithuania defeated Poland, who finished
winless settling for a bottom-place finish.

Belarus, thus join Malaysia in the Women’s Hockey
World League Round 2 stage after the latter made the cut winning the first Women’s
Hockey World League Round 1 Tourney at Singapore.

England women’s hockey star Ashleigh Ball
will miss the upcoming Commonwealth Games owing to a knee injury she sustained
during the recent World Cup 11/12 place classification against Belgium. The ace
midfielder suffered knee ligament damage and is expected to be out of action
for nine months.

The 28-year-old, who made her senior
international debut in 2008 and played more than 50 internationals, will
undergo a knee reconstruction surgery on a torn ACL over the next few weeks.

It may be recalled that the 2014 World
Cup was a hugely disappointing campaign for the 4th ranked English
side, which just about avoided the wooden spoon.

Ball was a member of the national side
which picked up a bronze each at the 2012 London Olympics, 2010 World Cup and
2010 Commonwealth Games respectively.

She will also miss the Investec London
Cup which kicks off at the Lee Valley Stadium in the Olympic Park from July 9
and runs till June 13.

The Ireland men’s hockey team swept two
Test hockey series against Wales, winning the second and final contest 2-0. The Green Machine failed to breach the
Wales citadel in the first half, but soon turned things around in the second half
as Shane O’Donoghue whipped home a penalty corner in the 44th minute.

The Irish made the scoreline 2-0 close
to the final hooter when Alan Sothern made the most of a short corner.

Earlier, Ireland won the opening Test
3-1 with Michael Watt, David Carson and Shane O Donoghue being the
goal-scorers.

The Ireland’s men’s team – ranked 15th in
the world - will feature in a two Test series against England on July 4 and 5
respectively.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

The omission of celebrated striker Jamie
Dwyer from the Australian men’s hockey team for the upcoming Commonwealth Games
to be held in Glasgow, Scotland next month, has taken many in hockey circles by
surprise, including Kookaburras captain Mark Knowles.

The 35-year-old forward has been
contemplating about his international future for some time now, without setting
any specific time-frame for the same. Hockey Australia obviously want to groom
youngsters with an eye on the 2016 Rio Olympics. One cannot fault Hockey
Australia for looking at the ‘future’, but for somebody of the stature of Dwyer,
who has achieved so much for the country – deserves to go out on a ‘high’.

Apparently, if the Australian media
reports are anything to go by, Dwyer is cut up with his Commonwealth Games axing
and now intends to go on a vacation and get his batteries recharged.

Dwyer, who equalled Jay Stacy’s record
of 321 caps – the most by an Australian – during the 2014 World Cup final
against the Netherlands which they won 6-1, did not leave anybody in doubt performance-wise
as he looked good in The Hague like most of his team-mates and even scored once
in the final against the Dutch.

The fact that Dwyer gone on record about
him being among the ‘sixteen best hockey players in Australia’ and that he came
to know about his omission through an e-mail makes its amply clear that he
hasn’t liked the Commonwealth Games axing at all. Probably, Hockey Australia having
a talk with him about his exclusion for the Commonwealth Games would have been the
‘right’ way to go about things.

One is not trying to suggest that Dwyer
should be handed ‘special’ treatment, but clearly a star player like Dwyer
deserves to be intimated in a much better way than just an e-mail, especially
since he is at the fag end of his career, when even being dropped for a match
or tournament can trigger murmurs about whether it is curtains for a player.

The point is simple: Hockey Australia
could have told him that they are resting him for the Commonwealth Games as
they need to try out youngsters keeping in mind the 2016 Rio Olympics. One
can’t help but feel that Hockey Australia could have handled this issue (not
including Dwyer for the Commonwealth Games) better and not leave the vastly
experienced striker with a bad taste in his mouth. It is learnt that Hockey
Australia had merely released a statement about the Commonwealth Games team
announcement sans any mention about Dwyer – something which hasn’t gone down
well with many in Australia.

There is no doubt that age is catching
up with Dwyer and one knows for sure that he is keen to spend more time with
his family, but the forward must have still not ruled out his chances of
playing in the 2016 Olympics. If at all, the selectors or the coaches do not
want him in the Rio-Olympics-bound squad, they should tell him upfront and at
least allow him play in one international which can be his farewell game. A
player of Dwyer’s credentials definitely deserves better.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Australian hockey continues to be gripped
by retirements. First, Kookaburras head coach Ric Charlesworth fast-forwarded
his retirement plans (he was to retire after the 2014 Commonwealth Games), and
chose to stand down after shepherding the national side to World Cup glory in
the Hague, Netherlands. Seasoned midfielder Rob Hammond subsequently called it
a day. Now comes the turn of another Aussie player Liam De Young to call time
on his international career.

Young, who is one among only four
Australians to play more than 300 internationals (others being Brent Livermore,
Jay Stacy and Jamie Dwyer), probably took the decision to zip into the sunset
on a ‘high’ – the 2014 World Cup glory. Young was also part of the 2010 World
Cup-winning team in New Delhi and featured in four World Cups in all.

The 32-year-old star midfielder, who made
312 international appearances, won three Olympic medals, three-time
Commonwealth Games gold medallist and was also a member of the Australian Champions
Trophy winning team on four occasions.

Young made his senior international debut
against Belgium in October 2001 under then coach Barry Dancer – a game Australia won 3-1.